Life at the Olsen's: Watch me grow...

I am so in love with my two little girls. It is hard sometimes to remember that they are not like other newborns. They reached 32 weeks gestation on Thursday... we have to think of them as still in utero as far as their age. This means when they finally come home they will be considered new born even though they will be around 3 months old.

I attended a parent night put on by the March of Dimes that taught us about the special development of a preemie infant and how they require a much different environment and care than your typical baby. Some interesting things I learned are:

Rocking a preemie feels to them like the tilt-o-whirl feels to us, very disorienting. It is important to be very still when holding them.

It looks cute when they "stretch" out their arms and legs, but they are really looking for the boundaries of the womb and it is scary for them to not feel anything.

Having boundaries, like being swaddled, or confined by special bedding provides important developmental ques for the preemie. Without these boundaries, they do not learn to self regulate and wont develop proper muscle tone or tendon length in their extremities.

Even though they squint at bright lights, their eyelids are still so thin it makes no difference.

It feels natural to us to stroke or touch a baby softly, but a preemie will feel over stimulated and "tickled" by those actions. When you hold a preemie it is important to have firm steady "pressure" as it feels reassuring.

The girls are now 19 days old and still doing very well. Temperance is now up to 3 lb 8 oz and 17 inches long. Juliet has grown to 2 lb 10 oz and 16 inches long.

They are both still receiving their milk through a feeding tube. Temperance now gets 30cc and Juliet gets 24. That doesn't seem like much, but it is a lot for such a tiny body.

They both have found their thumbs. Temperance tries to suck on everything that gets near her mouth when it is getting close to feeding time and does really well with a bink. Juliet is partial to sucking on her fist and also loves her bink... which takes up half her face!

Both girls have "smiled" at us. I am sure it is just a spasm since they have a long while before they actually develop true muscle control to smile.... but it is still pretty darn cute!

Temperance has gotten big enough and maintains her own temperature well enough to wear onsies... sister still has a little way to go before she gets her first outfit, but I am sure it wont be long.

They have so many cute little personality quirks already... it is amazing to watch them change every day.